1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser.
2. Description of Related Art
Various techniques of improving a performance of a condenser have been known. For instance, JP2001-165532A (corresponding to US2001/0004935A1) teaches a technique (hereinafter also referred to as a first prior art technique) of improving a heat radiation performance of a condenser. According to this technique, a height of an inside space of a tube of the condenser, through which refrigerant flows, is set within a predetermined range, so that there is reduced a sum of the amount of reduction in the heat radiation performance, which is caused by an air flow resistance at an outside of the tube, and the amount of reduction in the heat radiation performance, which is caused by a pressure loss in the inside space of the tube. In this way, the heat radiation performance of the condenser is improved.
Furthermore, in a case of a conventional condenser, an inner fin is placed in an inside space of a tube of the condenser to divide the inside space of the tube into a plurality of passages. With respect to such a condenser, there is known another technique (hereinafter also referred to as a second prior art technique) of improving the heat radiation performance. Specifically, according to this known technique, the inner fin is arranged in the inside space of the tube such that a center-to-center pitch between each adjacent two passages defined in the tube is reduced to increase a total wet edge length in the inside of the tube to improve the heat radiation performance. Furthermore, it should be obvious that the heat radiation performance of the condenser can be improved by reducing the height of the inside space of the tube, which is measured in a stacking direction of the tubes, and thereby increasing the total number of the tubes of the condenser.
However, in the case of the second prior art technique and the case where the height of the inside space of the tube, which is measured in the stacking direction of the tubes, is reduced, a cross-sectional area of the passage in the inside of the tube is reduced. When the cross-sectional area of the passage in the inside of the tube becomes small, a brazing material, which is used to join between an inner wall of the tube and the inner fin, may possibly be throughly distributed in the inside of the tube to possibly cause clogging of the passage with the brazing material.